Originally Posted by
Irishish
They also need to take into account all the time lost sitting in base before a trip due to the fact that the commuter was conservative, took an earlier flight, and actually made it on.
Remember, the FAA now requires you to be adequately rested for each leg of a trip. If you are a responsible employee that commuted in extremely early (3-4 flights early) and sat around all day, you may not be "fit to fly" by the end of the day. Morally and legally, that requires you to remove yourself from the trip for fatigue reasons. When you fill out your fatigue report, be sure to include that for the previous xx years, you arrived well rested and unstressed (because your j/s was secure through a reservation). Don't fly fatigued...
The company has clearly stated that a reservation system saves them money (increased productivity, lower absenteeism). The big question is this -- what will the company demand we give up to make up for the increased cost of a seniority-based j/s? And what will we give up in order to pay for another step backwards?
I say we offer them the AA retirement in exchange for seniority-based jumpseats. That should offset the cost... (kidding...)